A 74-year-old Colorado man was injured when a black bear with three cubs broke in through a sliding glass door and he was unable to get them out, according to the Colorado Department of Parks and Wildlife.
Residents of the home were startled by a loud crash around 8:30 p.m. Thursday night and saw a bear entering through a sliding door that was ajar.
Wildlife officials said the 74-year-old man tried to chase the adult female bear away with a kitchen chair, but the chair hit a wall and caused scratches.
The bear charged and mauled the man, injuring him in the head, neck, arm, shoulder, abdomen, and calf, before the man and other residents fled to a bedroom and became trapped.
Sheriff’s deputies in Lake City, a town of 400 people in southwestern Colorado, chased the bear away and medics treated the man at his home. His identity was not released.
“We were certainly lucky that there were no fatalities due to the close proximity,” Colorado Wildlife Officer Lucas Martin said in a statement.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife said in a statement Saturday that the man’s injuries were serious but did not require a trip to the hospital.
State wildlife managers found four bears in trees near the man’s home and killed them. This was standard practice to deter problematic bears from associating humans with food.
“This creates a very complex situation to mitigate,” Martin said. “Unfortunately, cubs taught these behaviors by their mothers can spark generations of conflict between bears and humans.”
Bears are common in and around Lake City, and wildlife officials were aware of other reports of bears entering vacant homes and garages in the area over the summer and early fall.
This is the first reported bear attack in Colorado this year. In 2023, there were six.
Tim Daly of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said as humans move closer to forests, more animals will show up at people’s homes.
Daly recommends not attacking a bear if you come face to face with it.
“It’s a bad idea to turn around and run. There are a lot of wild animals out there and that can trigger their chasing reaction,” he said.
Instead, he said people should slowly turn away from any wild animals they may encounter. He also stressed that black bears are not dangerous and that bears rarely attack people.
“We may get hit, but the bear is not looking to attack us or harm us,” Daly said.
Coral Murphy Marcos contributed to this report
